René Bonnière

Bonnière was born in Lyon, France. He first began his film career in France as a director for the French army, working alongside Henri Colpi and composer Georges Delerue. He then worked as an assistant to filmmaking pioneer Marcel L'Herbier.He emigrated from France in May 1955, arriving in New York City with his wife, Claude, via the SS Flandre. Bonnière spent six months working at a bank on Wall Street before looking north for a return to the film industry. He contacted filmmaker F. R. Crawley and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB); Crawley met him in New York and invited him to move to Canada.From 1956 to 1971, Bonnière worked for Crawley Films, directing dozens of films. His first works were Beaver Dam (short), Maitres artisans du Canada and The Legend of the Raven. He also collaborated with Pierre Perrault, considered one of Canada's finest filmmakers.In 1963, he directed Amanita Pestilens, the first Canadian film in colour and the first to be shot simultaneously in English and French.In a profile on Bonnière, Cinémathèque québécoise notes that his work for Crawley helped bridge the gap between Canada's French and English-language films.He also worked for the NFB, producing several documentaries, many about Canada's indigenous communities.Claude Bonnière, an artist, won a Daytime Emmy Award for art direction in 1982 for the ABC Afterschool Special, My Mother Was Never a Kid.